6.01.2009

camping season kick-off

Over Memorial Day weekend we inaugurated the 2009 camping season by taking Henry and the girls out to the farm for a little overnight getaway (i.e., we camped out for the night in our backyard). It was so much fun!

We set up the sweet tent that my in-laws gave us a few Christmases ago, loaded the air mattress up with lots of quilts and pillows and set out our Mizzou chairs in front of the tent along with our little card table. Then we turned up our iPod speakers to play some of our favorite tunes, played a killer game of dominoes, ate some yummy food and really enjoyed the different vantage point of sitting in the lower part of our yard looking up at the house instead of the other way around. As the sun went down we brought my laptop outside, watched a few episodes of Bones (thanks, Netflix!) and swatted away a bunch of mosquitoes (note to self: pick up some citronella candles before the next campout) before calling it a night and retreating into the tent with the pups all snug as a bug.

By morning though…..BRRRRRRR! It was in the low 50s when we got up, so we briefly left Camp I’m-Freezing-My-You-Know-What-Off to go inside and grab a few more blankets and a couple steaming cups of coffee. The sun (and coffee) quickly warmed everything up and we were back to enjoying our campout. Karl made my favorite breakfast (eggs in a basket, with local butter and local eggs…yum!), we walked the garden to see what new growth popped up overnight, we tossed the tennis ball for the dogs and just generally had a great time "away".

(Don't you think Henry looks like he's telling us the best story in this photo?)

My biggest observation about our camping gear, in preparation for actually loading up the car and going to a "real" campsite, is that our air mattress is not very comfy. It’s an Eddie Bauer brand full/queen air mattress that we picked up from Target a few years back….and (1) Karl + Laura + Henry take up more space than a full/queen air mattress has to give (even more so when you add in Chloe and Daphne to the mix), and (2) if you are a side sleeper (which I am), sleeping on this thing causes you to wake up with very sore hips and back. So I’m on the hunt for a better alternative. Any ideas or suggestions?